Yeah that much i knew, i was just curious if there was a functional reason why they decided not to have override files in the original dev phase.

Yeah it could be a security issue i guess if someone hacked the override, but if they were able to do that they would have access to much more than that anyway. And there are certainly calculated risks in everything we do online. So i was just curious maybe the dev's had a bad experience with a override file in their career and decided not to include them maybe.

WHMCS has language override files for their software and thats handling most peoples whole hosting business so it cant be that insecure to have one. Maybe not for html but at the minimum for css would certainly save all of us alot of time.

And the best thing is that it can be added with no take away from the original script, im thinking just one line of code and one empty file would do it

Override file is a file the script uses to check for overrides to core code. The file name is coded into the core.

For example: lets say that you wanted to change some core css, you would put your custom css into a override file. That code is executed on top of the core css code. This allows users to put as much custom css as they want in the override file without worry of losing it because that file is not included in the install or updates. The user must create the file name (whatever that is) per instructions after the install.

We used override files alot for language keys.. So if someone wanted to change key 'welcome' => 'hello how are you' to 'how are you today' they would just put this in the override file

'welcome' => 'how are you today';

the core would use that custom data rather than the core language data. The same works for css, html, and some scripts even php but that is rare.

Some scripts out there dont want people touching the core files at all, so they give them the ability to use their own code and override the core code for custom work using override files.

DavidRemember: You only know what you know and - you don't know what you don't know!My CDB Contributions | How to install an extensionI will not be accepting translations for any of my extensions in Github - please post any translations in the appropriate topic.No support requests via PM or email as they will be ignored

Some scripts out there dont want people touching the core files at all, so they give them the ability to use their own code and override the core code for custom work using override files.

Nowadays there's actually little to no need for editing core files. I would say that almost anything that needs customizing can be accomplished through extensions and events including things like changing behavior or what is returned for language keys. Plus adding a CSS override is as easy as adding a CSS file to the same extension that gets appended to the header and override classes there as needed. This is what I do for all clients that need customized style changes for their forums.

Of course if there is something you cannot accomplish with what is already available we'd definitely like to hear about it so we can address it.

when you minify a custom.css file (custom.min.css), should you delete the custom.css file (the unminified file)? thanks!

Not if you ever want to modify that file - although there are online utilities that will "unminify". Also if it part of an extension then both files should be in the extension.

DavidRemember: You only know what you know and - you don't know what you don't know!My CDB Contributions | How to install an extensionI will not be accepting translations for any of my extensions in Github - please post any translations in the appropriate topic.No support requests via PM or email as they will be ignored